The Los Angeles Dodgers sure do love the month of June. They use it to surge from a large early-season deficit to the division lead — at least in each of the past two seasons. For the second straight year, June has proved itself a spring board from mediocrity to excellence for the Dodgers. In 2013, a June surge led to a N.L. West title and a postseason berth. This year is obviously far from over, but a June surge puts them right in the heat of the race once again.
Recall that the 2013 Dodgers began June in last place at a dismal 23-31. The team had a loaded roster that just did not perform anywhere near expectations. Manager Don Mattingly had his job on the line. Then, two roster moves provided the spring board. First, Yasiel Puig made his Major League debut a ringing success: .436/.467/.713, 7 HR, 16 RBI, and 4 SB in 26 June games. Second, Hanley Ramirez came off the disabled list with nearly the same pop: /.375/.414/.672, 5 HR, and 17 RBI in 22 June games. He played through pain the rest of the season, but the Dodgers never looked back. They won the division by 11 games with final a record of 92-70, going 69-39 from June 1 on.
This year looks like more of the same, but they did not quite wait for June 1 to arrive. However, they did surge through the month. Entering June, the Dodgers were 30-27 and in second place, 6.5 games behind the San Francisco Giants. They ended the month in first place over the Giants by a half game at 48-37. That is the slimmest of margins, but that does mean they picked up seven games in the standings in just one month.
It takes two teams going opposite ways for that big of a gain to happen in that short of a time period. While the Dodgers were 18-10 in June, the Giants faltered to 10-16. Dodger pitching led the National League in ERA at 2.49; San Francisco pitching was 14th at 4.31. Offensively, the split is a little closer but not much. L.A ranked sixth in runs scored (3.93 per game) whereas San Francisco ranked 13th (3.58). Poor Giants offense and pitching has as much to do with the Dodgers’ surge as anything else.
The Dodgers have won with both pitching and offense, and the offense has spread it around. Five players drove in 10 or more runs in June: Matt Kemp (16), Ramirez (14), and Adrian Gonzalez (13) are no surprises, but Dee Gordon and Justin Turner (11 each) are. The team as a whole hit just 13 home runs all month, so they are scoring runs in many other ways.
The pitching is the #1 reason for the Dodgers’ June success. They went from allowing the third most runs in May (4.26 per game) to the fewest runs allowed in June (2.53). An earned run average of 2.49 means that the defense is strong, and pitchers are getting out of trouble from what few errors the defense makes behind them.
The pitching improvements started with Josh Beckett‘s no hitter on May 25 and continued through June, including Clayton Kershaw‘s no-hitter and near-perfect game on June 18. Kershaw was 6-0 with a 0.82 ERA in June; Beckett was 2-2, 1.09. Dan Haren (3-1, 4.15), Zack Greinke (2-3, 3.82), and Hyun Jin Ryu (3-2, 3.19) were also quite solid. Kenley Jansen saved 9 of 10 opportunities. It is pitching like this that sets a team up for a division title — assuming it continues for the duration.
The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have another 69-39 run from June 1 to the end of the 2014 season, but the surge they had in June put them into first place. San Francisco, though, is a far better team than what they showed last month. Unless Colorado makes a similar surge very soon, the N.L. West figures to have a two-team race, and that race is up for grabs now.
PHOTO CREDIT: www.wallimgs.com
